CONTEMPT AND REPORTING RESTRICTIONS
The law of contempt makes it a criminal offence for the media to publish or broadcast comments or
information that creates a substantial risk of serious prejudice to active UK legal proceedings, in particular
criminal proceedings heard before juries. Penalties for contempt can be serious: fines, even imprisonment.
Many activities are capable of amounting to a contempt, including: publishing seriously prejudicial material;
obtaining or publishing details of jury deliberations; breaching reporting restrictions or a specific court order;
making payments to witnesses; filming or recording inside court buildings without permission; and publishing
information obtained from confidential court documents in both civil and criminal proceedings. In this issue
of zoom-in we report on three recent prosecutions, including a substantial fine for The Daily Telegraph, who
wrongly identified the sex offence victim of Adam Johnson.
Telegraph fined £80,000
for failing to protect
15-year-old’s identity
n The Daily Telegraph has been fined
£80,000 for publishing a pixellated
photograph of the 15-year-old victim of sex offences committed by
footballer Adam Johnson. Despite
the pixellation, the individual was
identifiable. Publishing an identifiable image of, or otherwise identify-
ing, a victim of a sexual offence (alleged or proven) is a criminal offence
under the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, unless the victim
has expressly consented, in writing,
to being identified.
Anyone publishing or broadcasting pieces involving sexual offences
should be aware of the automatic
restrictions on any information –
words, photographs or other material – that would identify the victim. As can be seen from this case,
the penalty can be considerable, the
power to fine having recently been
increased from a £5,000 maximum
to an unlimited amount.
Man jailed for identifying
footballer’s sex abuse
victim online
n Steve Knox, the former partner
of convicted footballer Adam Johnson’s sister, has been jailed for 16
Children and anonymity in court proceedings – a summary
n Programme-makers often wish
to make references to various types
of court proceedings, in differing
contexts. Wherever children are connected with legal proceedings, journalists and programme-makers need
to exercise caution. In most cases,
under-18s involved in legal proceedings, whether as a victim, witness or
accused, are unlikely to be able to be
identified because of various statutory reporting restrictions, some which
come into force automatically, others
at the instigation of the court.
Given that this is a complex area,
we set out below a summary of the
law as it stands regarding reporting
restrictions and children. Note that
in this summary we use the word
“child” to describe any person aged
under 18.
Where a child is a defendant (an
accused) in an adult criminal court (as
happens for some of the most serious
30 | zoom-in Winter 2016
cases), there is no automatic restriction on i